A US woman who shot and killed her husband and two adult children before taking her own life is thought to have committed the shocking crime as a result of being ostracised from the religion she was raised in.

A federal judge sentenced a former Arkansas judge Wednesday to five years in prison — a stiffer punishment than prosecutors recommended — after he admitted giving young male defendants lighter sentences in return for personal benefits that included sexual favours.

Every time I tell a mate I’m doing a story on cryptocurrency, they invariably ask me the same two questions: should they invest their own hard-earned money, and which cryptocurrency will get them a Lamborghini/yacht/island quickest?

In a 60 Minutes online exclusive, reporter Liz Hayes quizzed Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on his relationship with the unpredictable Twitter aficionado and US president Donald Trump ahead of their meeting at the White House Friday.

But Australian National University vice-chancellor Ian Young doesn't believe it will be anywhere near that.

"I suspect institutions will be cautious rather than go with grandiose fee levels in the initial years," he told AAP.

Mr Abbott wouldn't guarantee that fees won't double, but insisted no one had to pay "a cent up front" because HELP loans cover initial costs.

Increased competition may even mean some fees may go down, he said.

On their other flank, Mr Abbott and Mr Pyne insisted that no matter what funding Labor may have promised schools, it had to be cut because the money was never really there.

The day after dodging university student protesters in Melbourne, Mr Abbott was faced with pro-Gonski crowds in Hobart.

They were spurred on by schools funding architect David Gonski's accusation that the Abbott government had abandoned needs-based funding when it dumped $30 billion that had been proposed for schools over the next decade.

The coalition's decision to increase commonwealth schools funding only by the rate of inflation from 2018 would be to Australia's detriment, he said.

But Mr Abbott said Australia couldn't afford to back down on that.

"I'm certainly not committing to a permanent massive increase at the same level of the former government because it's those sorts of pie-in-the-sky promises that got us into the problem in the first place," Mr Abbott said.

Schools funding was still increasing, just not at the same rate promised by Labor.

Mr Pyne said the next agreement he would negotiate with states to start in 2018 would "be very much largely the same.

"It will be needs-based, it will be across Australia and national, and the money will increase every year according to CPI and enrolments," he told reporters in Sydney.